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ECOWAS insurance scheme ripe for review – Official

By BusinessNews Staff on January 2, 2014

The Secretary General, Nigerian National Bureau, ECOWAS Brown Card Insurance Scheme, Mrs. Henrietta Anyanna, has said there is a need to review the scheme in the West African sub-region.

A statement on Tuesday quoted Anyanna as saying this while making a presentation on the ECOWAS Brown Card and trans-border insurances.

“There is a need for a review considering the fact that some aspects of the protocol have become obsolete. A review taking into consideration realities of our current situation will impact on the scheme,” she was quoted to have said.

According to her, the protocol was signed by the heads of 16 West African states in 1982 and a supplementary protocol was signed in Dakar, Senegal in December 2001.

Anyanna explained that the scheme was established in May 1982 and signed by the 16 ECOWAS member states in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

The scheme, she added, was designed, among others, to guarantee victims of road accidents within the sub-region fair and prompt payment of damages, including bodily injury caused to nationals of a country by non-resident motorists from other ECOWAS member states.

Some of the objectives, she said included, to promote trade and cultural integration among the countries in the sub-region, to develop international links and exchange as well as the extension of the insurance market within West Africa.

Anyanna said the scheme was established for the countries to have a common system for claims settlement, leading to harmonisation between the member states of laws and regulations governing motor insurance.

She noted that the Economic Commission for Africa at its seventh session in 1965 resolved that member states should set up a sub-regional inter-governmental machinery responsible for the harmonisation of economic and social development in the sub-region, which gave birth to the Economic Community of West African States.

[Punch]

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